I reformatted the My Book - which went smoothly. The copied a short video. Again - worked well. Now I'm copying a whole bunch of videos - and it's taking time. I'm copying about 10-15 hours of standard definition tv shows. So far, it's been over an hour. I have no idea how long it will take via USB2 connection. The 30 minute video took less than 5 minutes. I have follow-up questions. I wonder what the best way is to back up these files. I just opened up My Documents and right-clicked one at a time - then chose the option to "send to" and selected drive e: my book. I'm sure there's a better way to do this, but I don't know what it is. I tried to highlight more than one file at a time (using the shift key) - but it didn't seem to want to let me highlight more than one at a time. I also wonder if I send a file to MY Book - does that mean it's moved to My Book and the original isn't on my PC - or is it copied there? Raven - I know I should know this by now, but I don't. How do I find my firefox profiles and bookmarks files so I can copy them to the external drive? Lastly, is there a way to copy files to the external drive in such a way that I can get prompted if the file already exists? so I don't make a copy and have 2 copies in there? with many files (like pictures), I may get a prompt that says the file already exists - should I overwrite it or skip. Is there anything like that when copying files to the external drive? At some point, should I bite the bullet and buy a software program to do this. Western Digital tries to give trial periods for the following software : Memeo Autobackup, Memeo Autosync. Any reason to get these? Or any other software? Also, when I reformatted the drive, it wiped the drive clean. Is there anything (drivers, software?) I would need to download from Western Digital (to replace anything I might have erased). I know that the proprietary software that's sometimes loaded with these things (like cameras, printers) may not be necessary at all. Thanks. Lynn.

I use a Western Digital 80 Gb, external hard drive w/ USB2 conection. This drive has its own power source and does not swamp the USB port. (Most USB ports are protected from shorting. If a device pulls too much current from the port, it shuts down and a re-boot is required to get the port running again. I have a 120 Gb Passport drive for my laptop and the inrush of the drive motor will shut down the port. A "Y" connector is required so that the disc drive can pull power from 2 ports.) To back up my importnt data files, I do not use a "backup" utility that uses data compression and put a group of files into a file set. This harks back to tape drives and limited storge space. I simply copy my important data files using the same folder (directory) structure as on the parent drive. Now, the back up copies are readily available by a simple drag and drop operation. For example, you may have financial data that changes daily. Its simple matter to periodically write copies of the current files to the back up space.

Owbist, thanks for the advice. I made a comment accompanying the image backup  something like, Âfirst backup image for laptop with Vista OS Nov 09Â. So, I wonder, like in your situation, if I named the folder just Âlaptop whether it would be possible to delete the image from the HD, and then do it over again, saving it with a more detailed description? Or once something is in the HD, is it impossible to take it out? And thank you for your help, and the links, Raven. IÂm not sure if I actually created a folder when I backed up the image today. IÂll have to check. I unplugged the HD, and put it away. IÂm not really sure whether to leave it connected to my computer at all times? Also, when I tried to Âsafely remove hardware when I attempted to shut off the HD, I got a message saying something like it couldnÂt be shut down because a program was using it (which as far as I could tell, there was no program using it). I searched the internet, and see that this isnÂt an uncommon problem. I eventually resolved it by shutting down the computer and then disconnecting the HD.

Lotodig, Is there a program? Yes, Acronis is pretty good. Some members of the forum has reported external hard drives that will backup your internal hard drive without having tertiary programs. Actually, what you're trying to do or should do is clone the internal hard drive. Sounds like you've already got the external hard drive. Well, plug it in and turn it on. Now go to "My Computer". Should have something listed there for your external, a D or M or F. Assuming you have XP operating system, open one of your folders and select a file but don't open the file. Now in the top left hand of the page, click on file. A dialog or menu box will open. Somewhere in that box will be the line "send file to". Click on that and then click on the letter designation for your external hard drive. Guess what, you've now completed the first lesson in external hard drive 101. Its really simple. Rather than going through each folder and sending it to the external, get a program like Acronis. It actually clones the internal hard drive. How much of the internal do you want to put on the external? Well, how many files can you afford to lose? Why not just do them all. There was a recent thread about restoring the internal from the external. The poster was having problems and one of the questions asked was, do you have all the incremental clones cause if you don't it won't work. My experience is that incrementals take a bit less time but I simply do the full clone. I keep 3 full clones on the external and when I do the next, I delete the oldest. Its really not complicated and perhaps the hardest part is remembering when to do the backup. I use a thumb drive to keep up to date on daily minor changes and then clone about every week. HTH Bob